6/28/20

Sermon Notes:

Psalm 13 narrates the way a feeling can move and transform when we are willing to feel that feeling, express it to God, and allow it to give way to God’s healing. The Psalm begins with a wail, or at least a whine “how long is this going to go on…forever?” The psalmist feels cut off from God. Lonely. The last lost soul on earth. 

Have you ever felt that sort of gloom come over you? Given all we have been through, I bet more than a few of us have been taken by surprise by just such an emotion. Maybe you are going along fine, holding it all together pretty well, and then…seemingly out of nowhere…some dark feeling or disappointment or fearfulness threatens your peace and energy for living.

We are typically socialized to get busy, push it down, find something else on which to focus our attention. And these are good remedies when we need productive coping mechanisms. But every once in a while, our souls simply need to give way to the feeling. Name it. Write a psalm about it. Ask God questions about it. Sit with the feeling and name its features. Is it more fear or sadness? Is it more a feeling of loneliness or having gotten things wrong? Is this an old feeling or a new one?

If you can sit with the feeling for about 2 minutes, and better yet, have a good cry or scream into a pillow, you will most likely experience the fresh breeze that comes along behind it to bring release. The feeling does not last forever. No feeling does. We actually keep “icky” feelings in place by resisting them. Like getting our fingers stuck in Chinese finger traps, the harder we resist, the tighter the trap.

Another way to help feelings move along, once we recognize we are in the midst of a feeling, is to ask ourselves what need this feeling indicates? Do you need more rest? Do you need more interests? More time with kindred spirits?  Do you need more solitude?

The psalmist lets his feeling go to the worst-case scenario: my enemies will crush me and laugh. This gives way for him to realize that even this is not bad enough to keep God away. Even at the worst, God is lovingly busy working out our goodness. Even as we wonder if the bad feeling will ever end, this very honesty is drawing us back to God where we are safe and well and loved and can feel it.

On Sunday we will read Genesis 22:1-14 and Matthew 10:40-42. Each of these stories looks at ways of being obedient to God. In one, Abraham follows God’s command all the way to the bottom of his deepest fear, the fear of losing his longed-for son. In Matthew, obedience comes in the form of welcoming all who work in the name of the Lord.

This week, friends, may we be open to finding time to let our feelings unwind and give the outcome to the Lord who, we know for sure, desires good for us, every ready to deal bountifully with us.

See you Sunday!

Peace and Grace to you,

Jane